The political unrest in Mexico continued until General Porfirio Diaz appointed himself president in 1876. Over the next 35 years, Diaz would rule Mexico like a dictator, giving and taking favors as he found necessary, to ensure his continued nonstop reign at the top. His pronouncements became exceedingly unpopular, making the rich land owners increasingly wealthy and powerful, while crushing all indigenous uprisings with an iron fist.
Enter Francisco I. Madero
As McLynn correctly points out, Madero was a very unstable person. He was a member of one of the wealthiest families in Mexico and had, therefore, the wherewithal to challenge the ruler, President Diaz. But Madero wasn't all that radical and, as McLynn points out, his main support came as a result of the dissatisfaction others felt for the dictatorship of President Diaz, and not for his Plan of San Luis Potosi. McLynn does an excellent job of explaining how Madero, who believed he was in touch with the spirit of Benito Juarez (considered the ??George Washington ? of Mexico), became the spark that ignited the fires of revolution that soon spread over most of Mexico.
In Morelos, Emiliano Zapata rose to power attacking federal troops there, while in Chihuahua, Pancho Villa took up the Madero charge. There are many main actors who play pivotal roles throughout the revolutionary years of 1910 to 1920 and McLynn does a good job of properly portraying their part, though he tends to lean towards their main contribution in the revolution itself, leaving their overall personality less understood.
Another main problem I have with McLynn is his constant reference to European stories as metaphors for the actions these players take during their years in the revolution. I felt like I needed a library of 14th to 20th century European textbooks next to me in order to understand the many oblique references he makes. To demonstrate Villa's impatience, he compares Villa to Murat, King of the Two Sicilies in the 19th Century. McLynn describes the curanderos, practitioners in herbal remedies who date from precolonial times, as Chaucer's Pardoner, an obscure reference to a personage from the Canterbury Tales who carried around strange potions.
I give McLynn high marks for describing the Mexico that existed prior to the revolutionary years of 1910-1920. He gives a good understanding of the differences between the various geographical areas and points out beautifully how these are merely arbitrary points forced together by the colonial powers with little regard to historical realities, yet become nevertheless integral parts of the country known as Mexico. The complexity that resulted during the revolutionary war is a direct result of this arbitrage.
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